The night before I left Budapest to return to New York, I phoned Rabbi Baruch Oberlander, the Lubavitch emissary in Hungary for for some information.
When I apologized for phoning him at a very late hour, he said, “I am still up. I am preparing the next issue of Egyseg, which is to appear tomorrow.”
“Egyseg,” which means Ahdut (unity), is a Lubavitch Hungarian language periodical. It was established several years ago by Rabbi Oberlander, who serves as its editor. “The periodical reaches 14,000 Hungarian Jewish families,” Rabbi Oberlander told me.
Rabbi Oberlands is, indeed a very busy man. The story of his activities in Hungary is mind-boggling.
He doesn’t claim any credit for his extraordinary achievements. “It is all in the Zekhut and with the Koah of the Rebbe,” he says.
Rabbi Oberlander was born in New York of parents who had come from Hungary. During his studies at a New York Yeshiva he became attracted to the Lubavitch movement. He subsequently studied at the Yeshiva of Sloboka, Bnei Brak, at Kfar Habad and at Tomchei Temimim (the Lubavitch Yeshiva) in New York where he was ordained by the late Rabbi Yisrael Yitzhak Piekarski.
He married Bat Sheva, the daughter of Rabbi Moshe and Judith Lazar. Rabbi Lazar is a very successful Lubavitch emissary in Milan, Italy where he serves as rabbi of two Iranian congregations. Bat Sheva’s grandparents are Zvi Meir and Devora Steinmetz of New York. Steinmetz, a Hebrew poet, is known in the Hebrew literary world by his pen name Zvi Yair. the poetry of Steinmetz who is a Lubavitch Chasid is taught in religious schools in Israel.
In 1989, not long after his marriage, Rabbi Oberlander was sent as a Lubavitch emissary to Budapest. The late Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Glueck promised to support him financially during his first year in Hungary.
(The late Reb Avraham Yitzhak Glueck was a remarkable man. A successful London businessman, he served as the “Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Ambassador” in Europe, helping Chabad emissaries in various countries. When the Rebbe asked that the Tanya be printed in places all over the world, Glueck arranged for its printing in different countries in Europe, including Czechoslovakia, which was then under Communist rule.)
In 1991 I visited Glueck in his North London home with my friend, the Chabad artist Kalman Tiefenbrun who resides in London. It was Motzaei Shabbat. Glueck’s home was filled with people he and his wife had invited to stay for Shabbat in order to show them what the Jewish day of rest was like.
We huddled with Glueck in a corner, listening spellbound to stories about his journeys and exploits on behalf of Lubavitch. We also reminisced about the Israel Defense Forces. All three of us– Glueck, Tiefenbrun and the writer of these lines — had served as volunteers in the IDF during the War of Independence.)
In Hungary it didn’t take Rabbi Oberlander very long to establish himself on his own. In 1990 he was appointed a lecturer in Jewish law at the Budapest Law School. How come? Soon after his arrival in Hungary, Rabbi Oberlander began to look for young people to teach them Torah. One of the young men, whom he taught Gemara was a law student. One day the student told the dean of his school that he wanted to study Jewish law. The dean said that if he knew of a person who could teach that subject, he would gladly introduce such a course. The student suggested Rabbi Oberlander.
When the dean met Rabbi Oberlander, he was surprised to see before him a very young man.
“How can you be a lecturer in Jewish law at such a young age?” he asked Rabbi Oberlander.
In Jewish fashion, Rabbi Oberlander replied with a question. “How long have you studied law?’ he asked the dean.
“Oh many, many years,” was the reply.
“I too have studied law, many many years. I started studying Jewish law at the age of eight,” Rabbi Oberlander said.
He got the job.
Last year David Moskovitz of Boro Park Brooklyn, established in Budapest, in cooperation with the School of Economics of Tatabanya, a Jewish Business school (American School of Modern Business Sciences”). During its first year it was attended by 35 students. Next September they will be joined by an additional 75 students. Rabbi Oberlander is the Dean of Jewish studies at the school.
Besides his association with the Budapest Law School and the Jewish Business School, Rabbi Oberlander teaches at the Gymnasium Anna Frank, the high school of the Budapest Jewish community, which has an enrollment of 175 boys and girls.
And as if all this weren’t enough, Rabbi Oberlander also serves as Rabbi of the Hevra Shas Synagogue, an old Budapest congregation.
Add to all these specific activities in behalf of Lubavitch, on some of which I will elaborate in the next article– and you can imagine how busy his schedule is. As a matter of fact, when I visited him one evening in his apartment which doubles as Lubavitch’s “Jewish Heritage Center of Hungary,” we had to cut short our conversation — a very pleasant talk, for the rabbi is a very knowledgeable person -because he still had to deliver a lecture that same evening.
(Continued next week)
The Jewish Press, Friday, August 9, 1996
(Continued from last Week)
Sitting in Rabbi Oberlander’s booklined study in his apartment which as mentioned earlier, doubles as Lubavitch’s “Jewish Heritage Center of Hungary,” he showed me books, which Lubavitch had published in Budapest.
Last winter saw the publication of a beautifully printed Siddur with a new Hungarian translation. It is the product of the combined efforts of several persons: Simon Saroni did the translations; Naftali Kraus annotated the prayers, Jiszrael Dov Davidovic wrote about laws and customs, Jehudit Mikes edited the style. Rabbi Oberlander served as editor-in-chief.
The Siddur was put out by Lubavitch, but the latter succeeded in enlisting the financial support of other organizations, which recognized the importance of the project, such as the American Joint Distribution Committee and the World Federation of Hungarian Jews. The Hungarian Ministry of Education also participated in the funding.
The Siddur is named Tefillat Shemuel in memory of Reb Shmuel Blaustein who was killed in Auschwitz in 1944. His wife and their five sons are also commemorated in the prayer book, their sixth son, Zeev (Willy) Bentzur having contributed a significant sum towards its publication. There are in addition about 20 pages in the Siddur dedicated to the commemoration of deceased persons by members of their families.
Rabbi Oberlander writes in his Hebrew introduction that the Siddur is dedicated to the memory of the Rebbe of Lubavitch at whose behest “we have come here, have been active and will continue to be active, and in whose spirit to bring Jews back to their father in heaven – this prayerbook was produced.”
Oberlander enumerates Lubavitch’s activities in Hungary. They have a kindergarten, a synagogue, a publishing house, a periodical as well as Torah classes for young people and adults. “We have become the address for all those who are in search of the L-rd.”
Despite the great calamity of the demise of the beloved Rebbe, “we are commanded and duty bound to continue on our mission to spread Judaism and to bring Jews nearer to their roots.”
Naftali Krauss in his foreword, dwells on the great need for the Siddur as 50 years of Community rule and brainwashing have left the remnants of Hungarian Jewry spiritually in shambles: There is intermarriage, ignorance of and indifference to Judaism.
Ten thousand copies of the Siddur were printed and they sell well. Rabbi Oberlander showed me a non-Jewish publication, which describes the Siddur as a best seller.
Last year Lubavitch published a Yiddish Hungarian dictionary. It is not a new publication, but a reprint of a book which appeared in Papa, Hungary, 55 years ago. Hungarian Yiddish like the Yiddish of the Jews of other countries, contains a large number of Hebrew words, many of which are associated with religious Jewish life. In 1941 Henrik Blau and Karoly Lang put out a Hungarian Yiddish dictionary listing (in Latin characters) words and expressions of predominantly Hebrew origins, found in Hungarian Yiddish with translations and explanations in Hungarian. Here are some of the Hebrew words listed and explained in the book. They are transliterated in accordance with their Sefardi pronunciation, though in the book they are presented in their Hungarian Yiddish form: Akeda , Am Haaretz, Arba Minim, Arab Kanfot, Glatt Kosher, Chatan Torah, Chatzuf, Chaver, Chazzan, Chevra Kaddisha, Chesed, Oleg Regel Zein, Sheva Khillot (The seven Jewish communities which existed in Burgenland), Zecher LeChorban. Listed are also some non-Hebrew words such as Drei Vochn, Wachnacht, Verhoern.
“This book contains not only explanations of words and expressions but also of Jewish ideas, objects, and customs. Today’s Hungarian Jewish youth, which is very ignorant of its heritage may benefit greatly from its study. It is for this reason that we decided to reprint it,” Rabbi Oberlander told me.
“When fighting ignorance, you must always be on the lookout for new ways and means to spread knowledge,” he added with a big smile.
Rabbi Oberlander told me also about his “private” writings. He wrote an “Introduction to Jewish Law” (in Hungarian) for his students at Budapest’s Law School. Recently he sent an article to a scholarly publication in Israel about his discovery in the Jewish cemetery of Satu Mare of the grave of Solomon Judah Friedlander, the forger of the Yerushalmi on the order of Kodshim.
The Jewish Press, Friday, August 16, 1996